Your guide to the best theme parks and amusement parks. ThrillZing covers the standout rides, must-do attractions, tips, and history for the parks worth planning a trip around — whether you’re chasing thrills or a full day out with the family.
tz
/ September 3, 2026
Which park should a coaster counter visit first? This ranking counts every operating roller coaster park by park — audited against ride databases in September 2026, so there are no defunct rides, no standing-but-closed giants, and no water slides. Just coasters you can actually ride.
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tz
/ August 21, 2026
Happy Valley Beijing opened on July 29, 2006, in the Chaoyang District of eastern Beijing, becoming the flagship park in the Happy Valley chain built and operated by Beijing OCT (Overseas Chinese Town). Spread across roughly 56 hectares (about 138 acres), the park groups its…
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tz
/ August 20, 2026
Everland pulls in millions of visitors a year as South Korea’s largest and most popular theme park, but most first-time visitor questions aren’t about the rides at all — they’re about tickets, hours, how to get there without a car, and whether you can actually…
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tz
/ August 20, 2026
Lotte World is a sprawling entertainment complex in the Jamsil neighborhood of Seoul’s Songpa District, combining a colossal indoor theme park with an outdoor island park, a shopping mall, a luxury hotel, and an observation tower under one destination. Opened by Lotte Corporation on July…
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tz
/ August 20, 2026
Nagashima Spa Land is a sprawling amusement park in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan, sitting roughly 30 kilometers west of Nagoya as part of the larger Nagashima Resort complex. Opened in 1966, the park grew from a regional hot-spring resort into one of Japan’s premier coaster…
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tz
/ August 19, 2026
Fuji-Q Highland is an amusement park in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, sitting near the base of Mount Fuji. Operated by Fujikyuko Co. and open since March 2, 1968, the park has built a global reputation as one of the most extreme thrill destinations in the…
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tz
/ August 19, 2026
Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka’s Konohana-ku ward on March 31, 2001, becoming Universal’s third theme park worldwide and its first outside the United States. Built at a cost of roughly $1.7 billion, the park drew more than 11 million guests in its opening year…
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tz
/ August 19, 2026
Tokyo DisneySea opened on September 4, 2001, next to Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, and remains the only Disney park in the world built around an ocean-exploration theme rather than a fairy-tale castle. Operated by the Oriental Land Company under license from The Walt…
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tz
/ August 18, 2026
Tokyo Disneyland opened on April 15, 1983, in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, becoming the first Disney theme park built outside the United States. Owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company under license from The Walt Disney Company, it remains one of only two Disney parks…
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tz
/ July 16, 2026
Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park sits on about 65 acres along the Platte River in downtown Denver, Colorado, combining roughly 40 rides — including six roller coasters — with the adjacent 20-acre Island Kingdom Family Water Park. It’s one of the few U.S. amusement…
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tz
/ July 14, 2026
Europa-Park is a 95-hectare theme park in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, founded by Franz Mack and his son Roland and opened to its first visitors on July 12, 1975. Built as a showcase for the family’s ride-manufacturing business, Mack Rides, it grew from a modest site…
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tz
/ July 13, 2026
Phantasialand is a theme park in Bruhl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, that opened on April 30, 1967, founded by dollmaker Richard Schmidt and businessman Gottlieb Loffelhardt. What began as a puppet theater with a handful of boat rides has grown into one of Europe’s most densely…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Energylandia is a large amusement park in Zator, Poland, about 50 km west of Kraków. Opened on July 14, 2014, it expanded rapidly through the following decade, absorbing a neighboring water park and adding a string of headline-grabbing steel coasters that turned a modest regional…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Movie Park Germany is a film and television-themed amusement park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen, North Rhine-Westphalia, about 50 kilometers north of Düsseldorf. The site began life in 1967 as the fairytale-themed Kirchhellener Märchenwald before being redeveloped and reopened on June 30, 1996 as Warner Bros. Movie World…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Mirabilandia is a large amusement park located in Savio, a district of Ravenna in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region. Opened on 4 July 1992, it grew from a struggling regional attraction into the biggest theme park in Italy, covering roughly 850,000 square meters (about 210 acres) of…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Gardaland is Italy’s largest and most-visited theme park, sitting on the shores of Lake Garda in Castelnuovo del Garda. Since opening in 1975 it has grown from a single park into a full resort with two B&M roller coasters, a Legoland-branded water park, three themed…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Parc Astérix is Compagnie des Alpes’ answer to Disneyland Paris: a 34-hectare park built entirely around Asterix and Obelix’s Gaulish village, and it just posted a new attendance record of 2.84 million visitors in 2024, cementing its spot as France’s second-busiest entertainment resort. Between Toutatis…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992, in Marne-la-Vallee, about 20 miles east of central Paris, becoming the first Disney resort built in Europe. Originally launched as Euro Disney Resort, the property struggled financially in its early years before growing into the continent’s leading theme…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
PortAventura World is a sprawling theme park resort on Spain’s Costa Daurada, straddling the towns of Salou and Vila-seca in Catalonia. It opened as PortAventura Park on May 1, 1995, and has since grown into a three-park destination — PortAventura Park, Ferrari Land, and the…
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tz
/ July 12, 2026
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a seaside amusement park on the South Shore of Blackpool, Lancashire, England, founded in 1896 by American showman W. G. Bean and John Outhwaite. More than a century later it remains one of Britain’s most visited attractions, drawing millions of guests…
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